Looking Backward - A Photographic Portrait of the World at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century

At the turn of the twentieth century, the stereograph was king. Its binocular images revealed the world in vivid, three-dimensional detail. Drawing on an enormous, rarely seen collection of stereographic views, Michael Lesy presents images displaying a riot of peoples and cultures, stark class divisions and unsettling glimpses of daily life a century ago.

Lesy's evocative essays reassert the primacy of the stereograph in American visual history. In underscoring the unnerving parallels between that period and our own, Looking Backward reveals a history that shadows us today.

About the author

Michael Lesy is one of America’s leading photographic scholars. His books include Wisconsin Death Trip, Murder City, Angel’s World, and Long Time Coming. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he teaches literary journalism at Hampshire College.

Product details

• Authors: Michael Lesy, Lesy Michael
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 19.05.2017
• EAN: 9780393239737
• ISBN: 978-0-393-23973-7
• Dimensions: 254 mm x 264 mm x 28 mm
• Weight: 1564 g
• Illustrations: 233 duotone photographs
• Subjects: Guides > Hobby, home > Photography, filmmaking, video filmmaking; Humanities, art, music > History > Modern era up to 1918; Photography & photographs, HISTORY / Modern / 19th Century, PHOTOGRAPHY / History, PHOTOGRAPHY / Techniques / General, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, c 1500 onwards to present day, History of Art, Photographic equipment and techniques: general, History and Archaeology, HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / General